Work to begin this fall on high-speed rail to St. Louis

July 20, 2010

The first 90 miles of a high-speed rail corridor stretching 284 miles between Chicago and St. Louis could be completed late this year, under a construction plan the state and the freight railroad that owns the track announced Tuesday.

Installation of new rail and concrete ties to support 110-mph passenger trains will begin in early September in the southern part of the state, from north of Alton to south of Lincoln, excluding the Springfield area for now, officials said.

The routing through the state capital is the subject of an ongoing study, spurred in part by a local firestorm over increasing the number of trains passing through downtown Springfield.

The Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor, and the Illinois Department of Transportation are leading the $98 million project, which is funded through the federal economic stimulus program and expected to "support'' more than 900 jobs, according to Gov. Pat. Quinn. Any new jobs will be temporary, however, since the project is slated for completion as early as December, the governor's office said.

The work marks only the first phase. Amtrak passenger service at up to 110 mph on the entire route is still at least several years away, despite strong urgings to state governments from the Obama administration to produce quick and impressive results using $8 billion in stimulus grants that the White House awarded early this year.

Illinois received a $1.1 billion grant to provide three round-trips daily between Chicago and St. Louis in about four hours each way, as opposed to almost six hours currently. But the price tag for the entire 284-mile project is estimated at $4 billion.

In addition to questions about projected ridership levels on the line, many safety issues still must be resolved, including what to do about 300 highway-rail crossings between Chicago and St. Louis. Some crossings will be closed; others will require advanced protection and warning systems to prevent accidents.

Also, IDOT has not yet issued specifications for companies to bid on contracts to build new locomotives and passenger coaches that will operate at 110 mph. Amtrak's aging locomotives, which currently operate at a top speed of 79 mph in Illinois and 95 mph in parts of Michigan, are manufactured to travel at up to 110 mph, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. But Amtrak's passenger coaches, some originally built to serve as commuter trains, are far from the world-class trains operating abroad.

Still, state officials say that, with continued federal funding, faster trains passing through the Chicago passenger rail hub could be operating by 2014 to Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., on one corridor, and to Detroit and Pontiac, Mich., on another. High-speed extensions are also planned to Minneapolis; Indianapolis; Cleveland; Cincinnati; Kansas City, Mo.; Louisville; and other cities.